Second Time
by aguamenticharm
Summary: One shot. James Sirius Potter wants to get even with his brother, Al. Unfortunately, his father realizes what he is up to, and must teach him a lesson. Warning: contains spanking of a child by a parent.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters. Or the universe.

* * *

"Are you sure that that's the one?" Lily Luna Potter asked her older brother.

"Positive," replied James, as he examined the cloudy, milky blue potion.

"Why do you need it?"

James shrugged, smirking just a little. "Dunno."

"Then why are you stealing it?"

James rolled his eyes at Lily. "I have unfinished business to attend to," he stated pompously.

"What?"

James sighed. Little kids just didn't get anything. "Just shut up, Lily."

Lily gasped. "Jamesie! You said- "

She never got to finish. James clapped his hands over her mouth, preventing her from saying anymore.

"Shush, Lily! You know that I can't risk getting caught!" James whispered harshly. "Next time, maybe I won't take you on a mission and let you climb up to get the potion."

"No!" Lily protested. "Please, please let me help you on your mission!"

James paused, pretending to consider for a bit. But, the truth was, he needed lightweight and small Lily to climb up the cabinets to fetch the things that were off-limits to anyone except for Mum and Dad.

"They're dangerous and you should never touch them," Dad had warned him. Like he had cared.

"Fine, Lily. I'll let you get me the things. But _only_ if you're quiet and you don't tell Mummy or Daddy," James told her.

"But, what if they ask?" Lily, only a 6-year-old, was too perceptive.

"If they ask if you took a potion, say no. If they ask anything else, then I'll answer," James replied breezily. He was used to this. He had stolen things from his parents loads of times.

"Okay." Lily, like any other little sister, was far too willing to help her oldest brother.

As the two made their way to their own rooms, James began thinking of how even he was about to get with Albus.

_He'll be coughing out the disgusting potion for weeks,_ James thought, relishing the image. _He'll feel so sorry for telling on me for going out on my broom._

* * *

"James! Albus! Lily! Dinner!" Ginny called, using magic to levitate bowls of food onto the table.

James was first to get out. He went downstairs immediately. He couldn't miss his chance.

"Hi, Mum," he greeted, then pretended to look concerned and helpful. "Here, I'll set the table for you."

His mum looked surprised for a moment. James never offered to do chores. Well, maybe he was growing up and trying to be more responsible.

"Oh, that's so sweet of you, James! I'll tell your dad about how considerate you are," Ginny praised, going back into the kitchen to clean up a chopping board.

Now was his opportunity. James quickly poured a glass of pumpkin juice, and snuck a small vial out his pocket. After carefully looking around to check for the presence of other people, he quickly emptied the contents into the glass. He hastily jammed the vial back into his pocket, and began pouring two more glasses of orange juice.

After James had placed everything out neatly, being sure to put the potion-contaminated glass of pumpkin juice in Albus's place, Ginny came back out to the dining room. Albus came down shortly after, with Lily following him.

They all sat down, and began digging in to the delicious meal of roast beef, corn, and tomato soup. Harry came in the door a few minutes after they had started eating.

"Hi, Daddy!" Lily called enthusiastically.

"Hey, Dad," James and Albus called, almost in unison.

Their father greeted them warmly and sat down. "So, how's your day going?"

"Good. Guess what I did today, Daddy?" Lily's eyes lit up with eagerness as she decided to regale them all with tales of her day.

James listened adamantly to her. Luckily, Lily, quite a sneaky and clever girl, did not mention anything about their "secret mission".

After, Ginny mentioned how helpful James was beginning to be by setting the table and pouring the juice willingly.

So, all was well.

Until...

Until...

Albus decided to choke on a kernel of corn and drain his pumpkin juice.

And, the potion's effects immediately revealed themselves.

Albus was choking on the corn, but now was choking on the potion as well.

He was coughing, coughing, coughing, doubling over, and coughing some more.

James wasn't too pleased about the potion working so quickly because Albus had drank it so quickly, but was quite pleased about seeing a look of disgust on Albus's face.

"Eww..." Albus spluttered, before he began coughing some more.

Harry immediately figured out that this was no regular choking. "Anapneo," he said calmly with his wand out in a flash and pointed at Albus's throat.

Albus gasped for air, looking greatly relieved. But, he still held a look on his face that clearly expressed that he had something undesirable in his throat.

"What was that?" Harry inquired slowly, deliberately.

"I don't know!" Albus cried, looking like he was still choking on something. James silently snickered. "I was choking on the corn, but after I drank the pumpkin juice, something that tasted disgusting was, like, coming out of my throat and so I coughed even more."

"James, when you poured the juice, did you put something in? Maybe accidentally?" Harry asked, scrutinizing James's expression.

"No," James stated bluntly.

"Well, could you explain why there was something in there that made Albus choke quite a bit?"

"No," James lied again.

Harry narrowed his eyes slightly, making James shrink back just a bit.

Harry stood up very suddenly, briskly walked out of sight, and came back a few seconds later.

He stared at James, calculating, thinking, hoping that what he believed wasn't right.

"I'll have a word with you, James," Harry said ominously. "Privately."

James's confident expression was gone. He shakily stood up, and went with his dad to the study. Whenever his father "wanted a word", it was never a good thing.

They entered the study, and Harry pushed the door closed.

They stood in silence for a while, before James blurted, "I didn't do anything! Why do you always accuse me?"

His father studied him.

"Careful, there," Harry cautioned his son. "You need to learn to tell the truth and face the consequences."

"But..." James trailed off as he remembered that his dad had recently become interested in Legilimency. _Damn it._

Harry simply looked at James, as if daring him to say more.

"I... I... " James couldn't come up with a good excuse.

Suddenly, Harry seemed to gather his wits, lose his wits, and explode.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT COULD'VE HAPPENED? DO YOU KNOW, YOUNG MAN?"

James stood, trembling. He shook his head. His father usually didn't lose his temper like this. If he did, he must be serious.

"IF I WASN'T THERE TO UNBLOCK HIS AIRWAY, HE COULD'VE CHOKED TO DEATH! HE COULD'VE DIED!" Harry yelled.

James backed away unconsciously. _What is he saying?_ The potion would only hold up food that the drinker ate until he coughed all of the foul potion out. There wasn't much harm in that.

"No, the potion wouldn't kill him," James rebutted courageously, foolishly.

Harry stared down at his 9-year-old son. "It most definitely could have. Potions are unpredictable, and the one you used was quite a dangerous one."

It was time to teach James a lesson. He couldn't be so hasty and reckless in the future. Harry didn't want to risk any serious injuries or even... he couldn't even think of the worst possibility.

Yes, now would definitely be a good time to make sure that he never did anything so stupid and dangerous again.

"James, come here." Harry said, indicating his lap. Harry tried to act calm, but he was still burning with rage inside.

James looked appalled. Was his dad going to spank him? _Dad's only spanked me once before, and I was four at the time!_

"James..." Harry said as a warning. James was still hesitating.

"B-but Dad! I-I'll do anything else! Ground me for a week!" James suggested frantically. "Please, Dad, this is just cruel!"

Harry's temper flared. "James Sirius Potter! I will be as cruel as I possibly can if you make me come and grab you!"

James looked behind him, as if considering escape, but then resignedly went up to his dad, who forced him, face-down, onto his knees.

Harry looked down regretfully at his son, who already looked like he was going to cry. But, years and years of training as an Auror let him disregard his emotions and do what he needed to do.

"Do you know why you are getting this punishment?" Harry forced his voice to be hard.

James whimpered, as if he expected to be tortured in a second.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Stop with the theatrics, James. I'm not going to kill you."

James made a disparaging sound, as if he believed otherwise.

"The faster you answer me, the faster this will be over. Why do you deserve to be in this position?" Harry sounded the tiniest bit impatient.

"Because I-I-I was stupid and put the potion in Al's juice," James hated the waver in his voice.

"And where did you get the potion?"

"I stole it from you," James admitted miserably.

"From my stores that I explicitly warned you not to touch. Now, why did you do such a thing to Al?"

"Because." James was not going to let his dad know his childish motivation.

"Because what?" Harry demanded.

Okay. Maybe his dad wouldn't hit as hard if he cooperated.

"Because... he told on me last week," James muttered. "But, I was really angry at him 'cause I just wanted to have some fun!"

Harry smirked at the last, indignant piece of his son's confession.

"That's completely irrelevant. Al did what was supposed of him. Now, _you_," Harry paused for effect. "Did everything that you weren't supposed to. And that could've seriously harmed your brother. How would you feel if Al died because he told on you for one tiny thing?"

James started sniffling. "Please, Dad! I know it was dumb! I was just mad at him!"

Harry felt bad for using the "what if he died?" question. But, nevertheless, he forced more harsh words out.

"Haven't I tried to teach you to control your temper?"

_That's completely hypocritical_, Harry thought to himself. _I can't even teach myself any self-control._

"Yes," James managed to choke out.

_Just get on with it,_ Harry told himself. _You're torturing him too much._

"Obviously it didn't work," Harry said. In conclusion, he added, "so maybe this'll help teach you not to do things you'll regret."

He readied his hand as he felt James tense up.

He landed the first smack right on his son's right buttock.

James cried out, even though he knew it was coming.

Harry gave him another sharp smack right beside the first.

"Oww!"

Harry knew that he hadn't hit that hard, but James was not used to being spanked.

Harry grit his teeth together and delivered an even harder blow right below the previous ones.

James was wriggling like a worm on dry land by this point. Harry held him still.

_Smack!_ Right on top of the sting that was just about to fade.

_Smack!_ Another one, inspiring another part of his bum to start smarting.

This was really starting to hurt. James didn't cry out anymore from the surprise, but rather, the intense burning sensation that his father's spanks caused.

James clenched his fists. He felt a slight wetness in his eyes from the pain. He found that he wasn't able to squirm around at all anymore because of Harry's firm hands that forced him to keep still.

When Harry's hard and strong hand made contact with all the stinging areas again, James felt his first tear roll down his cheek and onto the ground.

But once the first tear comes, the rest come shortly after.

After two more painful swats, James was openly sobbing. Harry, seeing this, decided that James had learned his lesson.

After delivering the hardest, final smack, Harry maneuvered James so that he was standing back up.

James was alternating between standing on his right leg to standing on his left leg. He was also alternating from wiping his eyes to rubbing his sore bum.

"James, never let me do this to you again," Harry started, sounding resigned. "I hate this as much as you do."

"Well, at least your butt isn't on fire," James muttered venomously.

Harry sighed.

"I'm sorry, James, but you should know that you deserved it."

James glared at him, sniffling slightly less now.

Harry rolled his eyes at his pouting son, but reached out to hug him.

James didn't look pleased with his dad, but didn't reject the hug.

Harry pulled James onto his lap, making sure that his raw bottom wasn't situated directly on top of his legs.

"You know, James, you're such a troublemaker sometimes," Harry shook his head absentmindedly.

"Well, so are Albus and Lily," James retorted.

"Albus, a bit. But Lily..." Harry wondered if his son was trying to make sense or not. "Do explain, please."

"Well, she always helps me whenever I want to do something... that wouldn't make you happy," James explained.

"Like...?"

"Like, today, she helped me get the potion. She thinks they're, like, adventures or something. And she'll help me with anything," James elaborated.

Harry frowned at James. "That's you taking advantage of your little sister. You should get swatted some more for that."

James turned red and his eyes widened. He tried to climb off his dad.

Harry held him in place, but chuckled.

"Calm down, James. I won't punish you more. But, don't do that to your little sister anymore, or I'll be forced to repeat this spanking."

James looked relieved. "Okay."

Harry laughed, and held his son close to his chest.

"Oh, James. I love you, son."

"Love you too, Dad," James said. He rolled his eyes, but snuggled close to his father.

* * *

**A/N:** Just a friendly reminder to review...

Also, just as a side note, I am not encouraging corporal punishment through my stories. I'm not a parent. I'm a high school student who doesn't know anything about the real world.


End file.
